Public Harassment Prevention

Two figures walk from a brightly lit room into a neon blue corridor, where a man waits

My research has been published in Italian! Le Sociologie has translated my advice on how institutions can improve policies, practices and resources in response to public harassment of academics and researchers. Read ‘Sociologia Delle Politiche di Prevenzione Delle Molestie Pubbliche.’

The Pandemic Reader

Sticker on the window of a train, says: Please wear a mask on public transport

My work on ‘Pandemic, Race and` Moral Panic’ has been published in a new book, ‘The Pandemic Reader: Exposing Social (In)justice in the Time of COVID-19.’ Edited by Assistant Professor Mako Fitts Ward, Professor Jennifer A. Sandlin, Michelle McGibbney Vlahoulis, and Dr Christine L. Holman, the book explores the social and political impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Pandemic Reader offers critical perspectives on the sweeping injustices intensified by COVID-19 and the resurgence of racialised state violence. It offers context, data, viewpoints and solutions to collectively teach, learn, and thrive. It takes up abolitionist teaching methodologies—focusing not only on the many ways the pandemic has exacerbated injustice, but also on how individuals and communities are healing, expressing vulnerability, and building community—to amplify intersectional racial justice strategies across learning spaces. This collection is a pedagogical intervention to locate how individuals and communities propel us forward through the multiple pandemics of 2020.”

Read more here.

Interview: The Folk Devil Made Me Do It

A large building at dusk is obscrured by trees and darkness. A lit sign says: PANIC

I’ve been interviewed by NPR’s Code Switch on the growing political backlash about critical race theory. I discuss my research on moral panics about race. A moral panic is a situation or group positioned as a threat to social values. On the surface, it may seem nonsensical to ban critical race theory from schools, as it’s only taught at specialist university courses. Dig deeper: moral panics have always mobilised against a specific issue, and then moves to scale back other civic rights from minorities or marginalised groups.

Continue reading Interview: The Folk Devil Made Me Do It

My Work Translated Into Italian

A White person is seen from behind, mostly out of frame. They sit in a field reading an eBook

My work on “What is Applied Sociology?,” has been translated into Italian and published by Sociologia Clinica and Homeless Book publishers. The translation is published as a free eBook, Che cos’è la sociologia applicata una breve introduzione.

Check it out!

My work has been previously translated into French and a forthcoming publication will be in Persian.

Interview: Pandemic Misinformation

I spoke with Angeline Chew Longshore from The Mauimama about my article, “Using sociology to think critically about Coronavirus COVID-19 studies.” We talked about how I was motivated to write about the sociology of science because I saw so many people struggling to make sense of the pandemic. We discussed how national cultures are impacting responses to the virus, why precarious employment in healthcare is causing high rates of infection, and how we can better check whether the information we hear is credible.

Continue reading Interview: Pandemic Misinformation

Interview: Moral Panic

Oil painting picture of my face. I have short black hair, wear a colourful mask and colourful top with drawings of women

The past of the month has proved especially busy. I’ve done a few media interviews and launched a new webseries with Associate Professor Alana Letin, called Race in Society. More on these projects in the coming days. Today, I look back on my interview with 3CR Diaspora Blues about my article, Pandemic, race and moral panic. Listen below, with a transcription for accessibility further down.

3RC Diaspora Blues Moral Panic with Dr Zuleyka Zevallos
Continue reading Interview: Moral Panic

Virus, community, activism

Oil painting image of protesters at a Black Lives Matter Protest in Sydney. They are wearing surgical masks during the COVID-19 pandemic

Since I last wrote you, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has obviously transformed the world. I went into voluntary lockdown in early March, and Australia went into official lockdown at the end of March. I’ve been writing a lot on the pandemic on my social media, especially on Twitter and on Facebook and Instagram stories, as well as on my research blog.

Today, from 2.30pm-3pm AEST, you’ll be able to hear about some of this work on COVID-19. I did an interview with Bigoa and Baasto on 3CR Diaspora Blues about my research on Pandemic, race and moral panic. Below is a preview of the interview.

Continue reading Virus, community, activism

Race and education

A drawing of a woman of colour holding up her mobile taking a photograph

Today, read about an interview with me on the social construction of race and a forthcoming presentation on vocational education and training.

Race

I was interviewed by Metro (UK) for their series, The State of Racism:

“…Race is a social construction,” says Dr. Zuleyka Zevallos, Adjunct Research Fellow at Swinburne University. “Race is a system of classification and stratification, based on perceived biological differences. Race is stratification because these categories rank some groups as superior to others. It’s not based on some innate and immutable scientific fact.”

Read more on Metro UK.

Continue reading Race and education